Page 60 - bne_August 2020_20200810

60 Opinion
bne August 2020
International issuance of equities and debt takes place outside the local market. Local investors, local brokers and investment banks, local lawyers and the local securities exchange don’t benefit. Moreover, international loans, including those from the multinational development banks, should be negotiated and denominated in our local currency; they may cost higher in terms of interest rates, but will help us to avoid systemic
FX risks. It will be more challenging and harder, as it takes more discipline and creativity, harder effort on marketing, improving our domestic legal framework, more effort on price discovery, coordinated action on both sides of the table – by lenders, and the borrowers. The IFI community can play
an important role here, as they have state-of-the-art risk management tools, experienced people, investor outreach; their voice and position counts.
COMMENT:
Five reasons why Zelenskiy is failing
in Ukraine: Zelenskiy faces a political future that is no laughing matter
Melinda Haring deputy director of the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council
Poor Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In April 2019, the comedian- turned-presidential candidate won Ukraine’s highest office by a nearly three to one margin before trouncing the country’s established political parties a few months later in the parliamentary elections. His new party won so many seats that Zelenskiy held a majority in parliament. Now Zelenskiy faces a political future that is no laughing matter.
Zelenskiy was elected on three promises: to end the war in eastern Ukraine, to make the large Eastern European country of 42mn rich, and to staunch corruption. But after an initial burst of activity on the reform front, he ended up faltering on these pledges. The kettledrum rhetoric about fundamentally changing Ukraine has faded away to a faint pianissimo. Only a year in, he seems languid and defeated.
The shift isn’t just in tone; it’s also in substance and personnel. Zelenskiy sacked his reform-minded prime minister, most of his cabinet, prosecutor general, and many other top officials
www.bne.eu
Developing the local financial markets, including the capital market, should be one of Uzbekistan’s top priority. This will allow us to diversify the sources of financing for the economy, reduce and avoid foreign exchange and default risks, create
a culture of financial literacy and ultimately improve the welfare of the broader population. We can do all of this without foreign currency borrowing, but we will not have a second chance.
Atabek Nazirov is Director of the Capital Markets Development Agency of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Prior to returning to the country of his birth to serve in government in 2018, Mr. Nazirov had a 20-year career in banking in New York, London and Moscow, including roles with Goldman Sachs and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Zelenskiy's presidency seems to have gone off the tracks but no one is sure why? Is he simply out of his depth, is Ukraine unfixable, or he simply the puppet of oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky?
in March and April, stunning everyone. The timing couldn’t have been worse. The global coronavirus pandemic reached Ukraine a few weeks later and may well devour up to 8.2% of its GDP. Zelenskiy has hired flunkeys with little experience and even old Yanukovych cronies. At the same time, he is supporting politically motivated charges against the former president, prosecutor general, former infrastructure minister, and heads of the tax and customs services.
In May, the Ministry of Finance terminated the head of the independent supervisory board of the MGU, the independent company that oversees gas transmission. Historically, gas was the prime sector for self-enrichment, but that started to change in 2014. Zelenskiy’s move is a step back toward the bad old days of rampant defalcation, potentially paving the way to sacking the heads of the independent supervisory boards that govern Naftogaz, PrivatBank, and other important state- run companies. Goodbye, corporate governance – we hardly knew ye.